INDIANAPOLIS—Ezekiel Ansah grew up in Uganda. Never played football until he attended BYU.

Sharrif Floyd grew up in Philadelphia, but he was not big on football until he became good at it. Never watched an entire game until Super Bowl XLI, when the Colts beat the Bears.

Not the background you would expect from two of the top defensive linemen at the NFL Scouting Combine. However, Ansah (6-5, 271) has drawn comparisons to Jason Pierre-Paul, another latecomer to football who has developed into a star end with the Giants. Most scouts project Ansah to be a first-round pick, and the better he performs at the Combine, the more his stock will rise.

Floyd, a 6-3, 297-pound defensive tackle who entered the draft as a junior from the University of Florida, could be the first D-lineman taken, a potential top 10 pick.

This draft is loaded with defensive lineman and linebackers who could be impact players. But after starting late in football, Ansah has made a fast impression.

“I have been playing only a few years," Ansah said Saturday. “I still have a lot to do just to catch up. I’m going to be dedicated and do everything I can just to be the best player at this position. That is the challenge that I have."

The Combine will help some of those players rise and cause some to fall.

“We all have different styles of play,” Floyd said. “It’s kind of wide open more than we think. It’s all up to the teams and what they need.”

Floyd said he preferred watching the Disney Channel and Cartoon Network to watching sports as a child.

“I liked to play it (football) instead of sitting down and being still and watching a game," Floyd said.

Floyd became a dominant player as a junior, and by the end of last season, he had no doubt he wanted to enter the draft.

“After the Sugar Bowl, Coach (Will Muschamp) came in and shook my hand and said, 'Congratulations, now go make your name known in the league,’ ” Floyd said. “That was him telling me to get out of Florida.”

Ansah is the youngest of five children, and his siblings and parents still live in Uganda. He did not try out for football at BYU until after he was cut twice trying out for the basketball team.

“I didn’t want to just sit around and go to school,” Ansah said. “Since basketball didn’t work out, I wanted to do football.’’

Ansah knows some scouts are not sold on him making a smooth transition to the NFL. He is approaching the Combine as a chance to dispel those thoughts. Defensive linemen will work out Monday at the Combine.

“Regardless of the fact that everybody is telling me I’m raw, I’m pretty good at what I’m doing,” Ansah said. “A lot of people have doubts about me, and that’s what I love, I just want to prove you wrong.”

Teams looking for defensive linemen and pass-rushing linebackers at the top of this draft have plenty of choices. Ansah and Floyd look like two of the best ones.